Editorial: Where is The Turning Going?

A little over a year ago, The Turning Magazine uploaded its first issue. At that time we were determined to share our observations of Christianity’s weaknesses, and to seek out positive alternatives within the tradition. Now in our fourth issue, we are pleasantly surprised by the modest success of the magazine – it has clearly struck a nerve with many of you. Some are offended, others are encouraging. Few seem to be indifferent. That’s a good sign.

As the magazine evolves, it has developed a twofold approach, emphasizing critical ideas and the power of prayer. As many of our writers have stressed, the royal road to God is through prayer, be it via meditation or more traditional word-based forms of prayer. We find this encouraging. If we are to get beyond the consumerist mindset pushed on us 24/7, a turn towards an alternative spiritual form of consciousness seems to be more necessary than ever. As a result, we continue to welcome articles about the meaning of prayer, and ways to pray.

At the same time, being an engaged Christian can’t just be about a state of mind or a feeling. Christ implored us to love God and show it through our love and treatment of our neighbors. In our case, we continue to encourage readers and writers to share their ideas about where Christianity is failing itself and the world. It is only through being frank about the religion’s shortcomings that we can seek out positive affirming alternatives within the religion. In this issue, we feature a searing indictment of many Christians in Nazi Germany. As uncomfortable as it is to admit now, a form of judgmental, racist Christianity helped the Nazis assume power. Thankfully, today’s right-wing Christians are not inciting similar horrors. However, we should all take note that Christianity can be interpreted in many ways, even to the point of legitimizing acts of absolute evil.

We continue to be delighted by the submissions we have recieved , and we would like to suggest a few topics of interest for future issues. If any of you would like to write an article that fits into these categories, we would be delighted to receive them:

Pleasure and Christianity – why has there been such a conflicted relationship and can it be fixed?
How Jews and Christians differ in their readings of the Old Testament.
The apocalypse: why was Christ wrong about the imminent end of the world?

And of course we are always open to more articles about prayer.

Thank you all for a great year. Please tell your friends about us to help continue the discussion and debate.

God bless you in your journey,

The editors,
Stephen Milton
Amanda McFarlan